Opinion: Strike report: Day <strike>7</strike>65
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This way to the egress
My hunch yesterday seems to have been accurate. The writers’ blocking of the Paramount entrance was just for show. This morning they were back to waiting politely at the light while Paramount employees and visitors drove on and off the lot without incident. There was one guy dragging a wheeled basket who seemed to be making a point of clearing the intersection as slowly as possible, but that’s too passive for even passive aggression. Business is being done at Paramount!
Welcome, Bridgewater College!
Among the loiterers at the Windsor entrance were a trio of chipper young Paramount hostesses in blue blazers, chinos and neckties, waiting to greet a bus tour from one ‘Bridgewater College.’ Whether that’s actually Bridgewater State in Massachusetts or the Church of the Brethren-affiliated Bridgewater College in Virginia I don’t know, but the latter boasts a ‘White, semi-conservative, [and] heterosexual’ student body, so I say enjoy Hollywood with good cheer and an open mind.
What does the Paramount Tour consist of anyway? After living around the corner for nearly a year, I’ve never been curious enough to plunk down $35 to find out. To my suggestion that they needed to add an Indiana Jones’ Ride of Doom to the itinerary, the hostesses only laughed politely.
Negative Golden Globes exert zero gravitational pull
The writers now hold the scalps of the Foreign Press Association, whose annual festivities are now in ruins. Wouldn’t you think the WGA would be organizing a bash on Sunday, to boost morale and to celebrate the victory? Apparently not. I asked David Wyatt, who mans the tables at the Paramount picket line, where the best Negative Golden Globes party was going to be, but he didn’t know of any parties at all (or so he claimed; this may be just be the principle that the best parties are the ones you don’t tell anybody about).
Dreaming of a better-looking picket line
Two Screen Actors Guild reps were also standing behind the literature table this morning. They weren’t taking any questions, however, and I’m not sure whether the show of support was for public consumption or for the writers themselves. In any event, the picketers could use the bucking up, even on a bright, cold day like this one. I’ve been struck by how glum the writers appear to be at a time when their position looks so strong. Then again, if you want a bunch of Knute Rocknes you’re probably not going to find them in a writers organization.
Day 74, 75, 76?
I think I made the error of not counting November 5 itself in my calculation yesterday. I believe that makes today the 75th day of the walkout, right?
That’s ‘heinously,’ Michelle!
Why is it corrections page never connect the stuff that actually needs correction. From today’s For the Record section:
In a Dec. 31 Calendar article about how soap opera writers are coping with the Writers Guild of America strike, a comment by ‘All My Children’ writer Michelle Patrick was not placed in the correct context. When she said, ‘The more heinous the producers behave, the angrier I get,’ Patrick was referring to members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, not the individual producers of soap operas.